I call bollocks to that on "Enlightment giving CP and elves having low conversion threshold" grounds. And paladins can reeeeeely stack those beads, which led me to many a preposterous mana spike with various glyphs.
While this is very true, you should know the sheer attrition power of the combination of high resistances and high attack damage. Increasing resistances and damage has a very similar effect to increasing mana as far as HALPMEH is concerned (one lets you tank more damage between each healing cycle, the other lets you dish more damage between each healing cycle), and on the balance you'll be a stronger character overall since those two attributes really strengthen your regen-game.
I'm not saying elf is bad
. I happen to like the Elf Paladin a lot, and since the attack bonus booster prep was re-introduced they've been totally viable. However, he needs
ways to get full-restores to his mana pool. Back when you could have five schadenfreude potions per dungeon and the crystal ball didn't suck your cash reserves elves were gods
, but that's long history now and his spike power is much more tame. On the other end of the spectrum, I ran a purist
human Paladin of Dracul not too long ago that had 60% physical resist (blood shield + body pact; sends shivers
down my spine) along with about 110 damage per hit. Stacking those kinds of bonuses, the concept of "spiking" loses meaning; you're steamrolling.